Today CNN declared what should happen to anyone who refuses a Covid injection - segregation and scorn. The NBA's Brooklyn Mets won't allow Kyrie Irving to play, and are helping the media make an example out of the award-winning point guard. Irving is 29 and has played professionally for 8 seasons. I don't follow basketball, but this story isn't about sports, it's about freedom, something I do follow. Below is a summary of the article, followed by my reaction and analysis.
Why Kyrie Irving is getting exactly what he deserves
(CNN) Brooklyn Nets have announced Kyrie Irving will not be playing with the team until he gets a Covid vaccine.
"Kyrie has made a personal choice, and we respect his individual right to choose. Currently, the choice restricts his ability to be a full-time member of the team, and we will not permit any member of our team to participate part-time."
This shows vaccine passports work. (New York requires a vaccine passport for gyms, which includes Barclays Center, where The Nets play.)
Last month, Irving refused to disclose his vaccination status, saying he would like to keep it private. Sources with knowledge of his mindset say Irving is "not anti-vaccine but upset people are losing their jobs due to vaccine mandates. To him this is about a grander fight than the one on the court, and Irving is challenging a perceived control of society and peoples' livelihoods."
Which, um, what? Like, go read those sentences again. Literally makes zero sense.
Irving has the right to choose not to be vaccinated, despite the vaccines being overwhelmingly successful in preventing hospitalizations and death from Covid-19, and a fully vaccinated society being our only real chance to get back to normal.
But given the serious threat unvaccinated people pose, teams and society have the right to say that you can't be a part of what they are doing. While you can choose to do whatever you like with your body, you must then accept that your choice may negatively affect your life.
We are all connected. When one person makes a bad choice, it isn't just their bad choice - it could lead to bad consequences for people who made the right choice.
Irving made his choice. Now he has to live with the consequences.
Wow.
Imagine being a private person, and having CNN do a front-page story outing and reproaching you for not taking an injection? I assume Irving is accustomed to pressure, but still, this must be tough on his psyche. To be singled out as the only member of the team with a particular stance is stressful... but to be treated unclean and dangerous simply for not being vaccinated goes too far. Rolling Stone just did a lengthy piece (of trash) on how "anti-vaxxers" are pushing around the NBA, heavily featuring Irving. How rich for the bully to claim the victim is pushing them around!
Irving's father was a black American, and his mother was half black American, half indigenous American. He was born in Australia. He surely already understands the concept of discrimination, but this time he's being mistreated because of his views and opinions, rather than his ethnicity.
Without knowing anything else about him, one thing I do know is that Kyrie Irving is a true American man! What a hero. Imagine if even a quarter of the league had his integrity and courage? Knowing he isn't an infectious threat to anyone, including his teammates, he's standing up for what's right even though almost nobody else is. In the face of total opposition, he has not bent. He has shown all the other players in the NBA how to be a man, how to stand up to tyranny, how to lead by example, how to exude inner strength and confidence, how to champion medical ethics and personal Liberty. He is showing Americans how to be American, and he is showing men how to be men. I hope we're listening.
I seem to remember the league being very supportive of players taking a stance on the BLM topic, kneeling during the anthem, etc. Those guys got fame and fortune for their "activism". But step out of bounds, and actually rock the boat? They'll find a way to cancel you.
"Irving made his choice. Now he has to live with the consequences."
Brutal. It's hard to believe I'm hearing such open tyranny on the main page of CNN. This is what Americans are being fed right now.
"Which, um, what? Like, go read those sentences again."
And that's not Jersey Shore, homey, that's the news!
I found the quote pretty clear. He's not anti-vaccine, he's anti-mandate. (That's my official stance, too.) It's a pretty reasonable stance, especially for an American. The Constitution (like the Charter here in Canada) enshrines free speech and medical sovereignty. Nobody 50 years ago would have been okay with this. Most even a few years ago would have found today's events unthinkable. But we're here.
Who is holding the line for Liberty?
Kyrie Irving is one. My respect goes out to him. And shame on The Nets for not supporting him, and for smearing him along with CNN and the media. It's too bad so many of his teammates caved. They're not protected from Covid by being vaccinated, and if they had natural immunity, they don't anymore. As athletes, their body is their temple, but almost all of them defiled it. Now they're pointing fingers at the only one who didn't.
Who else will hold the line? Will you? Do you have a line over which you will not let the state cross, or will you let them do anything they want to you, take everything from you? If you have a line, will you move it when times get hard, or will you hold firm? Kyrie Irving has answered these questions, and decided to stand on the right side of history. I'm standing there with him. I don't know exactly how many of us there are, but I have a feeling it's more than we're being told by the state media propaganda machine.
Choice or ULTIMATUM?
"Nobody is being forced. You have a choice," is a statement we're told over and over, and few would argue. It's getting harder, but technically, many of us can still choose to remain unvaccinated.
We also keep hearing "choices have consequences", another philosophically-true statement.
But now the media has combined the statements into one mantra: "You have a choice, but your choice has consequences." Look for it, and you'll see this phrase popping up all over the place right now.
Is it a choice, at all? The dictionary defines a choice as a right, an alternative, a power, an opportunity. A choice is a good thing because it gives you options and empowers you.
What we're dealing with here is something else.
Irving was given an uncompromising demand (take the shots), the rejection of which led to a severance of relations (can't play with the team). It's not a choice at all, it's an ultimatum.
If you think this is really about one guy, and basketball, think again. The mainstream media is broadcasting the ultimatum for us all. This is what we're supposed to get ready to accept: If we don't yield to the uncompromising demand (take the shots), we will experience a severance of relations (not welcome in society). If we're only a part-time member of the team/society, we're not welcome at all.
"It's not force if we give you an ultimatum." It sounds ridiculous, but we're supposed to swallow that concept. In other words, what we're doing to you isn't wrong because you chose it. (It was a forced choice that you didn't ask for or want, but that nuance has been dropped.)
Segregation is something our society experimented with and ultimately rejected. We now see dividing minority groups from others and discriminating against them as wrong. But suddenly in 2021, it's back in style! Well, if you believe the mainstream media and health officials, that is. Most good people still know it's wrong. Many of us are actively protesting against it.
"A fully vaccinated society being our only real chance to get back to normal"?
It appears The Nets have never heard that Covid has a 99.8% recovery rate, or about safe cures like Ivermectin, which have ended Covid in countries like India. More likely, The Nets are part of the globalist technocratic agenda. The treatment is being kept from the people in this experiment. In fact, it's the opposite of the Tuskegee experiment. That was when the state withheld medicine from black male test subjects, many of whom died of their infections. In fact, the memory of abuses like the Tuskegee experiment are a major cause of black Americans rejecting the Covid vaccine - they have a justified belief the government may again be trying to hurt them. This time, the "medicine" is being pushed on them, instead of withheld.
Mainstream media is calling Irving a conspiracy theorist, citing his belief that JFK was killed for going against the central banks (which is most likely true). Apparently he also follows conspiracy theorists on social media. Okay, so do I. In fact, I'm a proud conspiracy theorist myself. So? Even basketball players are allowed to theorize about conspiracies.
They haven't got any real dirt on Irving. He's not off the deep end. He's not an extremist. He's not even necessarily a dissenter. He's a skeptic who uses scientific thinking to make logical decisions, and he's a patriot. But he's going against the official narrative, and paying a heavy price for it.
"People should do their own research for what they want to believe in." - Kyrie Irving
Nothing but respect from me, Kyrie. Thank you. I'm sorry your team let you down, but it's inspiring to see you standing up for yourself and for them. A real team player, leading by example.
And that's what we all need to do, now. Stand up for ourselves but also our families and communities. Some of us don't have anyone else around them that isn't vaccinated right now, and the pressure is huge. You're not as alone as you feel. This won't last forever. Be strong, be encouraged! You are hated by the worst of people, and that matters little. You are loved and admired by the best of people, and you know in your heart and mind that you're doing the right thing. Keep the faith. Stay the course. Stand in the gap. Hold firm.
We WILL win. We may die, but if so, we die free.
DRutter
